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The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations [ird059]

Publication date: 0000-00-00 00:00:00

For more than 30 years the Shortwave radio spectrum has been used by the worlds intelligence agencies to transmit secret messages. These messages are transmitted by hundreds of Numbers Stations.

Shortwave Numbers Stations are a perfect method of anonymous, one way communication. Spies located anywhere in the world can be communicated to by their masters via small, locally available, and unmodified Shortwave receivers. The encryption system used by Numbers Stations, known as a one time pad is unbreakable. Combine this with the fact that it is almost impossible to track down the message recipients once they are inserted into the enemy country, it becomes clear just how powerful the Numbers Station system is.

These stations use very rigid schedules, and transmit in many different languages, employing male and female voices repeating strings of numbers or phonetic letters day and night, all year round.

The voices are of varying pitches and intonation; there is even a German station (The Swedish Rhapsody) that transmits a female child's voice!

One might think that these espionage activities should have wound down considerably since the official end of the cold war, but nothing could be further from the truth. Numbers Stations (and by inference, spies) are as busy as ever, with many new and bizarre stations appearing since the fall of the Berlin wall.

Why is it that in over 30 years, the phenomenon of Numbers Stations has gone almost totally unreported? What are the agencies behind the Numbers Stations, and why are the eastern European stations still on the air? Why does the Czech republic operate a Numbers Station 24 hours a day? How is it that Numbers Stations are allowed to interfere with essential radio services like air traffic control and shipping without having to answer to anybody? Why does the Swedish Rhapsody Numbers Station use a small girls voice?

These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered.

Now you will be able to hear this unique and extraordinary phenomenon for yourself, as Irdial-Discs releases THE CONET PROJECT: the first comprehensive collection of Numbers Stations recordings released to the public.

This Quadruple CD is an important historical reference work for research into this hitherto unreported and unknown field of espionage. The CDs contain 150 recordings spanning the last twenty years; taken from the private archives of dedicated shortwave radio listeners from around the world.

There's more information in the included PDF booklet and via the official site for this 4xCD collection.

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Reviews

Reviewer: Cory Jamieson203 - - February 23, 2024
Subject: Backwards Music Station

The Backwards Music Station is probably my favorite number station, the distorted glitchy audio is just surreal and creepy. Creepier than Swedish Rhapsody honestly.

Love this collection of number stations, it's interesting and also a bit scary.

Reviewer: ERAEUS BOORWEL - - February 21, 2024
Subject: Do yourself a favor and buy the "1111" edition on Amazon.

I've been a fan of this collection of audio for ages, and I finally just bought the 1111 edition from Amazon to get the additional audio and see if there's any audio quality improvements overall. I think the 1111 edition might be remastered, but also, the MP3 files are a much higher birate than this original release, so it does sound pretty good, definitely better than the 64 kbps quality of this version. This version still has its own charm, but you should definitely buy the 1111 edition on Amazon, only $9.49 for the full album, and you get 176 tracks in total, nearly 6 hours of audio.

Reviewer: AJ The Rabbit - - October 29, 2020
Subject: gud s0ng

Whiskey Tango Viente Y Uno is gud s0ng

Reviewer: Lunacia_Monk - - March 26, 2019
Subject: I listen to this like it's music, but not when I'm trying to sleep.

I used to listen to this when doing papers in college. My mother thought I'd gone a bit foil hat. Super creepy and historically fascinating.

Reviewer: dp122 - - February 20, 2019
Subject: Amazing audio!

Super creepy! I love hearing about SW oddities. :)

Reviewer: terramax - - May 31, 2017
Subject: Brilliant

love these. so moody. I sampled some for a song I made called "Frequency (Hells Bells)".

I made a video (which I'm going to upload, along with the song, to the archive soon) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ-gFJdirHI

:)

Reviewer: kittycatattack - - March 2, 2016
Subject: To Mystery777

I haven't felt any shock but I do feel like I'm being watched. It's creepy. It's like there is someone spying on me. It's a weird feeling.

Reviewer: Rambograham - - August 10, 2015
Subject: Comment

I am sure the recordings listed as "polytone" do not belong here at all.
They sound weird, but they are just old style analogue meteorological balloon telemetry (Radiosonde)
Done like this:
http://tinyurl.com/ost7rp5

Reviewer: Ayushenoy - - July 25, 2015
Subject: Awesome

Great Ebook and great recordings. Is there more than a pdf and 150 recordings

Reviewer: jwf3148 - - May 2, 2015
Subject: Wonderfully Transformative

Really alter my ambient conciousness when working...priceless...

Reviewer: WatchingEthosInFreefall - - November 29, 2014
Subject: New Music Video Using irdial

http://youtu.be/MOFOUpUqexU

This one has been up for a while but I have reposted it on my main channel. It is a remix of another guy's music; credits are at YouTube. I made the video and added the irdial tracks and some other musical elements to his originally mono track. Cool time-lapse of local clouds over our local mountain switching over to some awesome ISS public domain footage of the earth at night. Spooky result!

Reviewer: das_Sandmaennchen - - March 23, 2014
Subject: reply to mary524 & roblightwater

found diz yesterday i don't know how^^ *top
i'll use some of diz in my music r'works..
'if anyone knows of something exceptional he can gladly say it.and or send a link
really nice
thanX

Reviewer: aspie - - March 1, 2014
Subject: The Phonetic Alphabet Nato (Recording)

Ok so I am going to try and discuss this with out breaking the Official Secrets Act or the Data Protection Act or anything similar.

Being a Computer hacker (non malicious) and all around geek I know a lot about computers, military tactics, government, technology, electronics and mathematics.

This is a message encrypted using layer 2 encryption and than converted to numbers. The message is than converted to letters using Algebraic Expansion and transmitted in the phonetic alphabet.
This is typical of NATO and other American security agency's they go over the top on security.
From decrypting it in my head I got a load of nonsense and some hex code that means nothing to me.

Again do not ask me what the message says I can not tell you.

Reviewer: roblightwater - - October 1, 2013
Subject: reply to mary524

Superb idea -thats just what ive been thinking about doing

Reviewer: Don-O - - June 12, 2013
Subject: In short....

...a fantastic recording to listen to for late night sessions...right up there with selected Over The Edge episodes.

...and the thing to drive your heavy metal neighbors to drink and deafness.

Reviewer: Dirk D. Anderson - - June 6, 2013
Subject: Number Stations

I found my old anonymous review from five years ago!
They are still around. Evidently the Cubans are going to a so-called "Hybred" transmission. It consists of a female counting groups of numbers that indicate the six intended recipients followed by encrypted digital transmissions to one of each of the six intended recipients called out. Digital signal is most likely pdf type files that are encrypted and transferred over the radio.
The Ruskies may be transmitting to recipients in the USA's West Coast (Russian Embassy San Francisco, watching you!) via numbers transmissions in Spanish originating in Russia)
These are old recordings of historical interest.
I use cheap 15 year old $69.00 Shortwave Radio and have listened to quite a few of these.
Classic is New Star Broadcastings (V-13). Automatic pitched Mandarin sounds quite uniquely "robotic" and exotic.
Good general resource is: "HF Underground". Listings for documentation purposes are found at the "spy numbers" section...also good background information at the "wiki" section near the top of main page. It's hard to find, just click on it.
YouTube features many videos concerning these, a few are quite good.

Reviewer: Mary524 - - May 16, 2013
Subject: Challenge

Could someone turn some of these recordings into a music video? That'd be so cool <3

I know I'm suppose to be creeped out by it, but I'm not, oddly enough.

So could someone do that? Someone who's better with music videos than I am, or at remixing music..?

Reviewer: rebeccahigh - - April 2, 2013
Subject: an interesting tidbit

The current FX tv show "The Americans" shows one of the main characters, a KGB agent in the US, listening to a numbers station and decoding messages from her superiors. Interesting!

Reviewer: KillerEggplant - - October 29, 2012
Subject: To Mystery777 and TheEuropeanWolf

I wonder if what you're both experiencing is anything like the "zaps" I experience when on withdrawal from antidepressants. If I'm without my meds for several days, I begin to get intermittent zaps; they feel like a cross between dizziness and a tiny electric shock, though they seem to be a mental sensation rather than a wholly physical one.

Reviewer: Mitsos101 - - October 26, 2012
Subject: Great!

I've been interested in number stations for a very long time, but here in Athens I've never had a chance to listen to one, this is a great collection of recordings!
[Contact me at: quafflechestnut9@tormail.org]

Reviewer: florescentEggs - - October 2, 2012
Subject: G8!

This is so cool! Love these soundz!

Reviewer: Vlax - - September 25, 2012
Subject: awesome disturbation on my mind

I love this recordings!
they are really inspirational to me, it represents these lovely moments when you're dialing the radio just because!

Reviewer: preleenger - - July 21, 2012
Subject: Very interesting!!!

I've been listening to some of these recordings for a while now and tonight I had the opportunity of hearing one of theses stations live on 5.9 mHz in Spanish.

Reviewer: M0SSAD_NAT0_INDIA - - April 15, 2012
Subject: REVIEW

STATIONS- ALL GOOD RECIEVED HIGH RATING
REQUIRED FOR OPERATION

Reviewer: interval - - January 12, 2012
Subject: Got one!

After a few weeks of casual listening I caught on the other night, date was 1/9/12, time about 02:30 GMT, freq was 6888. Spanish, the usual 5 number groups.

Reviewer: cosmico - - January 11, 2012
Subject: Fascinating!

Like many of the others here, I too heard these transmissions years ago on a little short wave radio I once owned, and wondered what the numbers and tones signified and pondered their origin. This is great stuff to listen to, especially late at night when sleep is elusive. Imagine the strange dreams one might have as a result...!

Reviewer: Qool - - June 15, 2011
Subject: The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations

It's a very nice and eerie collection of tones.
I was wondering what kind of license is stated.
Am I free to use some of these sounds in a
video of sorts (non-commercial) ?

I would give credit to this website, of course. ;)

Reviewer: TheEuropeanWolf - - May 1, 2011
Subject: To Mystery777

Yes. I've tried it. I don't seem to be able to write any form of PM to you, so I hope you somehow see this. I actually tried that. Serveral times. The last time I got it was yesterday. Where I also watched my first 5 - 15 seconds of a video on youtube called "Persephone Numbers Station". It was 1 at night and I had never watched anything like that before. My heartbeat was very calm. Then after watching the 15 seconds, my hearbeat was about 2 - 3 beats pr second, and I felt a strange paranoia. Like someone was watching me. But. The "electric shocks" you're telling about. I've felt them. And even more weird, everytime I felt it I always ask the persons I'm with "Don't you know that feeling...?" and they always say no. I've asked about 30+ and they all say no.

I "suffer" (I don't consider myself as a victim) from OCD (I fought it with conative behaviour therapy over 1½ year) and Tourette Syndrom (Which is at its max at the moment, because I'm in my teen years. I'm 16, the 17th of June. And to finish it off I also got ADHD. Regardsless of my 3 mental disorders, I've always done great in school. But still, I don't think it can have anything to do with the electric shocks.

I've NEVER, heard anyone who've felt the same thing as I did... and you.. It happens somehow often, and it is as you say between the spine and the neck. I don't what to do with it, but atleast I wanted you to know that you're not the only one.

Reviewer: Anh Ba - - April 10, 2011
Subject: Brings Back Memories

Spooky is only part of it. I had a big deja vu moment (being a spook once). #'s 61 - 65 remind me of the radio signals I received when I was in Amsterdam (NL). The audio tones were used to remotely control the track switches on the trams/trains running around the city. This was back in '76. There was (is?) a magazine called Popular Communications that wrote regularly about these stations and I recall reading that some of the writers even located a few of them in the USA. When they cornered the operators on their way out of the buildings the op.s would not be very forthcoming with information about what went on inside the station. No surprise there!

Reviewer: Worldion - - March 20, 2011
Subject: Comforting

I actually found the station I listened to while in the midlands of England during the mid 70's on a walkie talkie comforting. The station would repeat the first few bars of "Oranges and Lemons". It was my audio jewel in the night. At the time I associated the signal with a pirate radio station, but reading and listening to this site and the wikipedia article lead me to think it was a numbers station.

Reviewer: madyokky - - January 23, 2011
Subject: Try this really strange experiment!

If these number stations aren't enough of a mystery for you, try this little experiment. Play these files using a program like Audacity that will let you reverse them and play them backwards. Do this, as others have said, at night, with the lights out and by yourself. I played the first file in reverse, and heard what sounded like someone (in English) saying "road finished". It says this several times and then several other English words are spoken-even the music seems like human speech when played in reverse.

Reviewer: joezz - - November 21, 2010
Subject: To mystery 777 strange symptoms

Have you heard about binaural sounds or i-doser drugs? Your case reminds me about them...

Reviewer: emarchive - - November 13, 2010
Subject: Numbers Station-themed episode on Fringe

Season 3, Episode 6 of the TV show Fringe (aired 11 November 2010) features a story centering on the numbers station phenomenon, for those interested in the "romance" of the topic but not so much the facts.

Also, regarding use of this material, according to the Wikipedia article on The Conet Project, the group Wilco used samples on their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, but "Jeff Tweedy did not seek permission to use the Conet sample and Irdial sued for copyright infringement. The incident sparked debate about who exactly owns copyright concerning recordings of numbers station transmissions, but Tweedy ultimately decided to avoid taking the matter to court, agreeing to pay Irdial royalties and reimburse its legal fees."
So it seems the matter was not subjected to legal judgement, but it is clear that Irdial is pugnacious about it. FYI.

UPDATE: The Conet Project recordings are also found at soundcloud.com/the-conet-project/sets/the-conet-project.
There, is found the statement, "The set "The Conet Project" by The Conet Project is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Be aware that the related tracks might have a different license."
Whatever that means. FYI.

FURTHER UPDATE: From Irdial's own site:
http://www.irdial.com/free_and_easy.htm
"Thus you have the freedom to make a copy of a CD we've released, the freedom to download soundfiles of songs we've released from our servers on the Internet, the freedom to cover or improve upon a song we've released, as long as you do not profit from that copy or improvement." FYI

Reviewer: louiscypher2000 - - November 13, 2010
Subject: The Monolith

Thanks FRINGE for turning me onto this phenom. My first guess was Long. Lat. Co-ords (just like on the show) but the more I listen to them, the more I am convinced that they are infinite loop radio signals using vocal intonation, mathematical theorem and other "white noise" pulses to create a type of interstellar language that transcends all levels of language that we know of to induce conversation aimed outward from the planet. In use since the cold war when we were in the middle of a space race with the soviets. It is meant to be a "hello" to any other races out there. People have reported becoming sick after listening to these stations for a long period of time. Der. Of course they are going to get sick. It WILL re-wire the electrical impulses within our teeny human brains as would anything else that you listened to incessantly for days on end drinking Red Bull after Red Bull trying to "de-code" this shit!!

BTW, I just told you what it is, so you can stop burning your brain out over it!

Reviewer: ECorzo - - November 9, 2010
Subject: What's the licence of this stuff?

I'd like to use this sounds, but there's no data on its copyright or creative commons license. Anybody knows about it?

Reviewer: Mystery777 - - October 20, 2010
Subject: Strange symptoms

Hi,

What follows is not a joke;

I’ve only discovered the fascinating world of number stations recently. I just fell into it very deeply, and began to listen to hours of those strange recordings, including the ones from the Conet Project as well as many others of the tons of similar recordings you can find over in the internet.
Like many people, I find those recordings disturbing, but attracting at the same time (you just can’t stop!)

I’d like to point out the fact that I’ve never been recognized as suffering from a mental illness or disorder. I don’t take any legal or illegal drugs, I just drink a bit from time to time at several occasions.

It may be just a coincidence, but I very began to suffer from very strange symptoms while listening to number stations recordings for extended periods of time; dizziness, sleeping disorder (insomnia) and strange dreams/nightmares. Having nightmares does not really worry me, for the simple fact that if you find something creepy, but you just don’t stop listening or watching it, it is normal to dream about it. What does worry me is that I’ve recently begun to feel kind of very weak and shorts electric shocks through the top of my spine/neck. I don’t know what it is, and I’m not sure it is actually related to the listening of number stations recordings, but the problem appeared when I got deeply into that thing. Describing the problem as small electric shocks is the most precise way I found to describe the symptom. It never lasts more than a half second or so, but it is very unpleasant.

I’ve already searched over the internet to possibly find people manifesting the same symptoms, but didn’t find anyone yet. The only thing I found was a video called “the Wyoming Incident”, a fake video about a supposed tv hi-jack. Even if the video has been identified as being a hoax, many people also had physical problems after having watched the video repeatedly. You can go on youtube and look for it, even if it’s a hoax, it just makes the same effect as the number stations recordings; creepy but fascinating. Specialists told that the symptoms were coming from the soundtrack of the video which was using very typical frequencies which can have unpleasant effects on the brain, mostly if you listen to them with headphones….And I do listen to number stations recordings with headphones, to not distract or bore my wife with them. Maybe my problems are coming from listening to several specific frequencies, I just don’t know…

Does anyone have a clue? Does anyone out there have experienced or is experiencing the same problems?

Thank you.

Reviewer: davesidious - - July 27, 2010
Subject: The Conspiracy Theorists

The intended recipients of these broadcasts do not listen to them in public. They have to transcribe the numbers, accurately and completely, before decrypting them. That can't be done on a bus (or the myriad places suggested in the accompanying PDF) or in a café as tyrspawn suggests. No one will suddenly rise up, take off their headphones, and start shooting people. That is abject paranoid nonsense. These recordings are wonderful, but the booklet accompanying them repeatedly descends into strange paranoia.

Reviewer: k1nDofBluE2749 - - May 16, 2010
Subject: Number stations: Static from the past

I am an avid music downloader. I know, I know, you immediately think "Oh God, Limewire" but no, I don't mean that. When I download music, I get it legally. Today, I was browsing around the Netlabels section, and discovered this was the #1 most downloaded item in that collection. I figured it must be worth a look. Boy, what an understatement! These recordings are amazing. As you listen, if you close your eyes, you can just picture the static. It's actually quite amazing.

Reviewer: tyrspawn - - November 10, 2009
Subject: Terrifying

The consequences of the amount of numbers stations not decreasing, leveling off, but actually INCREASING since the official end of the Cold War has very important implications with it. Namely, the Cold War continues, with even more serious intensity and escalation, carefully masked from the public perception for some reason.

I can imagine an Arabic man in a Baghdad Cafe, privately listening to what appears to be local radio on his headphones, only to rise as if summoned by an invisible demon and open fire on a passing motorcade. This isn't a conspiracy theory, but a reality of our time, in which black and false-flag operations have become prolific and endemic. As long as intelligence agencies are able to virtually teleport kill orders and intelligence across public airspace with astonishing reliability and security, expect more of the same for centuries to come.

Reviewer: Psy-Fi - - October 19, 2009
Subject: Mysterious transmissions

I remember hearing similar radio broadcasts more than 40 years ago, and wondering what sorts of nefarious activities were being carried out around the world after each one was finished. I guess we'll never know all the details for certain. These recordings are interesting for historical reasons and would probably be of interest to anyone who likes to use audio samples in their recordings. I didn't have enough patience or curiosity to listen to all of the examples here, but I did manage to download approximately 50 to 60 minutes worth of random selections. They brought back eerie memories of decades past. For the most interesting audio experience, I recommend listening to these recordings late at night and preferably when you are alone.

Reviewer: silviuog - - August 21, 2009
Subject: News - Messages on mobiles

Hi,
Since a couple of months ago, I listening in my mobile ( pad-bloqued, without touching it, sometimes is on my pocket, sometimes on a table) messages trough the speaker. Is like " This is a message for *******. 1630****Many Initials that I can´t get. Repeating sequence. ( 3 times). Mission complete."

Don´t know what is happening.

Reviewer: CountvonLuckner - - June 28, 2009
Subject: Number Station Enigma

Sending coded messages by radio is hardly any new kid on the block....back in 1905, the Japanese Navy invented what is known as "traffic analysis" by which they could anticipate the activities of the entire Russian Navy without ever knowing the actual content of the Czar's Imperial Navy code messages sent by cw Morse...this was how they were able to inflict such a staggering loss on the Imperial Fleet at Port Arthur...the history of radio frequency (including video) encryption is as rich and broad as it is long. Trust me...but numbers stations seem to have added a new dimension in their at times macabre and yet disarmingly charming hauntingness. Perhaps...as has been suggested...the entire subject has achieved the status of an art form...or perhaps was, by sheer intent, that to begin with.

Reviewer: Rob_Kath - - December 9, 2008
Subject: Poacher seized operations...

Apperently the Lincolnshire Poacher has
seized operations in July 2008.

Reviewer: RuthRader - - November 10, 2008
Subject: Morse Code Numbers Station Ogden, Utah?

I appreciate your information and this sharing is very helpful. However, I have been drawn-in to this whole thing by a mystery:

Someone is sending Morse Code messages (varied...not in a static loop) and I am hearing the transmissions via the first channel on the NOAA weather band on my Sony Walkman!

It is my understanding that this is illegal and could be related to something just not so good.

Please send me feedback!

Reviewer: 44054 - - November 6, 2008
Subject: Superb

I am new to this, takes a little getting used to.
Here Central Coast California, Listen to Korean
Number Station transmiting to Japan most mornings.
Transmisions are in voice and morse code.

Listen to Cuban V2 Number Station Friday evenings,
just below 40m Amateur Band. Will also observe
digital burst type transmisions.

Evidently, the Navy used these techniques- Ship to
Ship back in the day.

Interested in Radio and especialy HF Propagation
this will be a treat for you.

As we move higher into the new Solar Cycle, this will get real interesting. TNX

Reviewer: Montag11 - - September 23, 2008
Subject: Ongoing Project

I have been interested in "number stations" since I was a kid (I am a child of the cold war). I regularly hear V2a, the Cuban station, loud and clear, usually on schedule. Also M8, which is the morse counterpart to V2a. I have also listened to E3, the Linconlshire Poacher, which evidently left the air recently.

And yes, it's even spookier to hear the transmissions live, alone in my office, at 2:00 am. And that's half the fun!

Reviewer: mary007 - - June 29, 2008
Subject: By gone of the Cold War

These stations were a product of the Cold War when Communism and Capitalism clashed all over the world. Some of the stations would originate at high power transmitters at "headquarters" while others would eminate from some jungle outposts. They were designed so they could not be decoded, much like what we did to the Germans and Japanese during WWII. All in an effort to move spys and small action units. Data was gathered and People died as a result of what these stations said. They are a lot less frequent these days now that the Communists and us are such good "buddies." Some of the stations heard today are Middle Eastern, Israeli, Colombian drug cartel and mainland chinese. Brings back old memories, I love to hear them.

Reviewer: Old Man Medicine - - May 4, 2008
Subject: This is awesome

Leave it on while you sleep. Induce the finest nightmares available.

Reviewer: parkeca - - April 16, 2008
Subject: Wow

This audio is fascinating. Really compelling, weird, and lovely. An awesome archive for the artist.

Reviewer: NicholasWest - - March 27, 2008
Subject: I Just Love This Kind Of Thing

This is incredibly interesting and strange, and at times frightening and disturbing. Thanks to all of you who have made these recordings and archive, and their presentation, possible. Best of the net.

Reviewer: Mr Lansom - - March 3, 2008
Subject: Why Would Espionage Wind Down?

Great sounds...disconcerting...strange...frightening.

Reviewer: mr_loophead - - September 8, 2007
Subject: tcp d3 8 magnetic fields irdial

This audio clip (beginning up to 1:21) belongs to Jean Michel Jarre's 'Jean Michel Jarre in Concert: Houston-Lyon' album.

I keep coming back to this because it's bursing with interestingness.

Reviewer: jllstll - - August 6, 2007
Subject: A story worth hearing

NPR did a *fairly* good story on The Conet Project back in 2004. If you are at all interested in these mysterious recordings it is worth a quick listen.

Y'all are asking the same question about copyright. LISTEN TO THE NPR STORY.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4167689

In general - you cannot make money off of another person's licensed work. That's when you tread in dangerous territory.

Reviewer: NoiseCollector - - July 15, 2007
Subject: This is great

It is a treasure trove of sampling goodness, this is one of the coolest things on here. The story behind it would be a great movie idea, like a Davinci code theme but with some substance and actual recordings.

Reviewer: orangeiscool3984 - - July 11, 2007
Subject: Nice stuff

ALot of these have been used by bands in their songs like wilco and the haters. and such. I think they are in the public domain, so we can all use 'em for our recordsings.

Reviewer: Telephone Toughguy - - July 11, 2007
Subject: Awesome resource

I would be interested in using some of this as source material. What is the licensing status?

Reviewer: Jeff Archer - - July 5, 2007
Subject: Scared

This scares me at night.

Reviewer: augest_west - - May 28, 2007
Subject: wow

how freaky but amazing at the same time, thank you for bringing this to my attention

Reviewer: Kroggy - - April 9, 2007
Subject: Listened to it once

On the FM band in downtown near Moscow, the station had to transmit the Morze code, like this:
"-..-.-"
Looks like the very strange activiy for me, as these station can easily be located.

Reviewer: echoplexus - - March 28, 2007
Subject: Fun!

Very interesting listening, especially late at night with the lights off. KInd of scary to think that secrets are being conveyed right out in the open. Clever,

Reviewer: saturnism - - June 2, 2006
Subject: oriental language

"tcp d2 43 oriental language irdial" sounds like it's in chinese, repeating "I am ZhuHai, I am ZhuHai, I am ZhuHai"... and "Goodbye"

Reviewer: Fritz1 - - May 12, 2006
Subject: More Numbers Stations on the Internet Archive! (Revised from May 9, 2006)

The first time I saw "The Conet Project" was on amazon.com. I was curious to know what kind of short wave radio broadcasts did it contain. I looked up "The Conet Project" on a search engine (Dogpile, if I recall correctly) and discovered MP3 files of ALL the tracks, which means I could listen to "The Conet Project" for FREE ( http://irdial.hyperreal.org/the%20conet%20project). I listened to the MP3 files and noticed how they contained voices of a man, woman, boy or girl speaking a certain language. Some of the tracks contain a little music followed by a voice saying numbers (hence the name "Numbers Stations"). And there are some with Morse code and other such cryptic noises. Not too long after listening to them, I discovered "The Conet Project" on THIS website! As you may know, you could get the PDF of the booklet as well. I wonder if I might, somehow, find one of those mysterious stations being broadcasted using the short wave radio I have in my house. That would be like "Hey! I think I got one! What is he (or she) saying? 'Klatu?'... 'Baraba?'... 'Nitko?'... "

There are more recordings of numbers station here on the Internet Archive. Just enter "number stations" at the search (make sure the word "number" is singluar) and you'll find about 80 of them on the Seism netlable. Also try entering just the word "conet" and you might find more related stuff.

Reviewer: Tov H Rizzia - - April 16, 2006
Subject: Cool and disturbing

Why do these number stations keep operating? Who is using these to do what? What messages are they sending to whom? It is important to keep on top of these, I think. It might prove to be vital someday. And they are pretty cool to listen to. Lincolnshire Poacher is a catchy tune if nothing else. Makes for a good ice cream truck jingle.

Reviewer: gulag picture radio - - March 18, 2006
Subject: gulag picture radio

I was lucky enough to get one of the multi CD sets when it came out, and am thrilled that it's available here on Archive.org.

Sorry if I'm looking in the wrong place, but I can't seem to find what the "legalese" is on this collection. I'd like to do a spoken word piece at an upcoming art performance on number stations using some of these recordings, but I recall a band pinching these recordings and making the Irdial people unhappy.

Does anyone know where things stand now that these are on Archive.org? I wouldn't want to do anything to infringe on the awesome work done to make this collection possible. Thanks for any help!

Reviewer: Spuzz - - February 20, 2006
Subject: What the Bleeps do we know?

YEARS ago, I had a boombox that had an AM and FM station, with 2 cassette players. It also had something called ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂSWÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ and ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂSW2ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ. I am not too sure if my brother pointed these out, or if I found the numbers stations by myself. But anyways, I was instantly intrigued. Who were these strange people? What did they want? Well now I (and YOU!) can relieve those memories with 4 CDÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs (!!!) of material featuring the best of these stations! Listen to the random numbers stations! The crazy music! The people in the shop talking in the background (???) and other wild recordings! This was a total GAS to listen to!

Reviewer: knisterwerk - - November 24, 2005
Subject: Gute Zusammenstellung.

Eine gute Zusammenstellung an verschiedenen Nummernsendungen in sehr guter und verstÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¤ndlicher QualitÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¤t.

Reviewer: Loknar - - October 4, 2005
Subject: The definition of awesome.

See title.

Reviewer: samson - - May 7, 2005
Subject: Hypnotic and haunting...

...Definately worth a long listen.
Thank you to those who put this together!

Reviewer: shamefile - - April 29, 2005
Subject: Mesmerising...

...intriguing, disturbing.

Reviewer: Avatar_BE - - January 28, 2005
Subject: Eerie Sounds on Shortwave Bands.

I Found out about the Conet Project several years ago, and found the files on their website. However, the CD has been re-pressed in a limited amount, and i managed to get a set of originals.

As a Cold War researcher and radio-geek, this stuff just HAS to be in my collection. I remember that when i was a kid, i sometimes heared these strange words inbetween the dit-daa of the CW 'chatters'. Later i found out that it was what we then called 'the enemy'. That made it even more scary to listen to. When in the army, i heared about a batallion, dedicated to interception of those broadcasts. Back then, that was still hush-hush, but now they even have their own website : http://www.898vbdbat.nl/historie.htm

The number stations are still active, but are not so easily found nowadays. Wonder if there'll ever be a second 'Conet Project'. If so, i'll be the first to buy the original, that's for sure !

Reviewer: CompassRose - - November 12, 2004
Subject: Conet Project

A fascinating tour de force of the aural equivalent of crop circles. Akin Fernandez has managed to turn a personal collection obsession into an international phenomenon, and now has thousands of people asking -like him- "What are these stations doing?" Compelling as any mystery associated with human origin but having still no satisfactory explanation, the Conet Project can serve as an aural banquet, acting as a conversation starter, to music meant to accompany psychotic breaks to supplementing the kids' Halloween Haunted House.

Reviewer: dr zzzzz - - September 25, 2004
Subject: fascinating stuff

I am old enough to remember listening to my shortwave radio at night and wondering "what the hell" was going on with these insane numbers stations. I didn't think too much about it as I imagined some need for monotonous repetitive information in an age that antedated the internet and reliable radio communications.

It's interesting to see that the mystery lingers and that some people share my fascination 35 years later.

http://zzzone.net

Reviewer: Simon12rec. - - August 21, 2004
Subject: spooky indeed!

Yeah, spooky might be the right term to describe these artifacts. I listened to those while sitting alone in the computer room at my university at night... wheew!
The history behind this seems to be quite strange and intresting too.
Might also be intresting as basic material to create something new out of it I guess...
Very cool project guys!

Reviewer: RileyJ5 - - February 15, 2004
Subject: Spooky Frequencies

The idea that number stations still exist make these recordings even more interesting. What seem like random strings of numbers and speech are a complicated method of communication. These are historical recordings and should be treasured as such. Different voices speak out long strings of numbers cloaked in varying static and frequency interuption and sometimes you might even catch a small part of a melodie being played over and over again. Who or what is on the other end of the radio? Whay do they do this? Where is it coming from? All questions that make these recordings ver cryptic and very interesting to listen. Thank you Irdial for such a different release.

Reviewer: rjnagle - - February 15, 2004
Subject: Fascinating!

This is a crazy audio idea, but a great example of found recordings. Listen to more than 3 or so at a time, and you'll go crazy, but they're pleasant to listen to, esp the first one Swedish Rhapsody. Lot of them have interesting reverberations and sound effects.

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